Help Identifying This Padlock?

proto57

Hi: I found this padlock on an island in Long Island Sound (NY, USA) a couple of weeks ago. It was preserved pretty well about 8 inches deep, with heavy black concretions.

It looks rusted, but it is actually brass or bronze, with a rather simplistic faux leather pattern cast in. There are no markings that I have been able to find, of any kind. The curved locking bar appears to be iron, but it is not… it is not rusted, and is not attracted by a magnet. It is about 1 ⅞″ across, 2 ½″ high, and about ½″ thick (body).

Dating this would be very helpful, as I am trying to get a range of dates for this dig site. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Billy B Edwards Jr. CML

proto57 wrote
Hi: I found this padlock on an island in Long Island Sound (NY, USA) a couple of weeks ago. It was preserved pretty well about 8 inches deep, with heavy black concretions.

It looks rusted, but it is actually brass or bronze, with a rather simplistic faux leather pattern cast in. There are no markings that I have been able to find, of any kind. The curved locking bar appears to be iron, but it is not… it is not rusted, and is not attracted by a magnet. It is about 1 ⅞″ across, 2 ½″ high, and about ½″ thick (body).

Dating this would be very helpful, as I am trying to get a range of dates for this dig site. Any help is greatly appreciated.[ATTACH=CONFIG]16103[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]16104[/ATTACH]

It is a warded padlock, try this site full of pictures and other info.
BBE

http://www.antique-padlocks.com/index.htm

[unknown]

proto57

BBE wrote
It is a warded padlock, try this site full of pictures and other info.
BBE

http://www.antique-padlocks.com/index.htm

Thanks! I did look through those pictures, and many on the web, and cannot find this lock.

Would you, or anyone, have even a rough idea of the era it may have been made in, based on the decoration, design, material, construction? Even broadly, like late 19th c., pre-WWI, pre- or post-WWII?

As a rank amateur (or below!), the look to me… comparing the casting, the flat shackle, the size and general look, I would guess late 19th to pre-WWI. Would that make sense at all, in your experience?

All the best…

[unknown]

Timothy

Not sure but look close enough from Biglow & Dowse Co Hardware 1906 catalog Nos. 390 to 392.

proto57

Timothy wrote
Not sure but look close enough from Biglow & Dowse Co Hardware 1906 catalog Nos. 390 to 392.

Tim! That looks damned close! I would say it is probably the one, because I’ve not seen the exaggerated faux leather grain on others; and the hinge-pin and rivits are in the same place; and the proportions are the same. Even the border line, the way it arches around the lower rivit and upper hinge pin, seems the same.

It is not exact, but of course the image is an artist’s engraving, and in such cases I don’t think it is normal to expect every line (of grain in this case) to be exactly the same. Given that, though, I’d say this is the one.

I’ll search for another actual example, using your find, to see if the casting is the same.

Thanks so much for your time looking for and finding this. Proto.

[unknown]

proto57

… also, then, if it is this model lock, it would be the #392, as the catalog page says that one is 1 ⅞″, which is the width of mine.